Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
convened a listening session on the important issue of access to
curative treatment for hepatitis C virus infection. While the advent of
more effective, second-generation direct-acting antivirals for the
treatment of hepatitis C represents a tremendous scientific
accomplishment and a potential public health triumph, community leaders
and other stakeholders have raised serious concerns about barriers to
treatment access. Many of these concerns had been expressed in a
community sign-on letter sent to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell in early
September 2014.

The listening session was hosted by the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Health and led by Dr. Wanda Jones, Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Health. The Acting Assistant Secretary for
Health, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, was able to attend the initial portion of the
meeting, which took place at the Humphrey Building on December 9, 2014.
Twelve stakeholders representing healthcare providers, advocates,
persons infected with HCV, representatives of professional
organizations, and national leaders from a variety of disciplines joined
federal leaders from across HHS to share information about HCV
treatment access barriers and their impact on people living with chronic
viral hepatitis.

The stakeholders who attended the meeting were especially concerned
about restrictions on access to the new HCV treatments put in place by
payers, which, in the stakeholders’ opinion, do not appear to be
medically justified. Listed below are three examples of restrictions,
shared by the community stakeholders: